AFP, BEIRUT: Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah on Saturday blamed Islamist extremists for killing its top military commander in Syria and vowed to keep fighting to defend President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The movement has deployed thousands of fighters in Syria where Mustafa Badreddine had led its intervention in support of Assad’s forces, which are also backed by Russia and Iran.
Badreddine, who was on a US terror sanctions blacklist and wanted by Israel, was killed in a blast on Thursday night near the Damascus international airport.
Hezbollah announced his death on Friday but without immediately apportioning blame, breaking with its usual pattern of accusing arch-foe Israel of responsibility.
On Saturday it said a probe had concluded that Sunni Muslim radicals known as “takfiris”, who consider Shiites to be heretics, had killed Badreddine.